


from the heart

by polkadottedmars



Category: Nancy Drew - Carolyn Keene
Genre: Christmas, F/M, Family, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-22
Updated: 2015-11-22
Packaged: 2018-05-02 19:03:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5260109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/polkadottedmars/pseuds/polkadottedmars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nancy and Ned have been together a while and have given each other all kinds of things over the years. This year, they decide they aren't going to buy each other Christmas gifts - they have to make them from scratch.</p>
            </blockquote>





	from the heart

**Author's Note:**

> older fic reposted from Livejournal

“Daddy! I’m trying to do my homework!” Grace complained.

Ned stopped tapping his pen on the notepad and looked over at his five-year-old daughter. The homework in question was actually a coloring sheet, but Grace was in deep concentration. She looked so much like her mother that Ned had to smile. Grace was a complete mini-Nancy, right down to the determined expression on her face.

“Sorry, honey. Daddy’s just having trouble with his own homework.”

Grace’s eyes widened. “You have homework? But you’re so old!”

“Thanks,” Ned chuckled. “It’s not the kind from school. You know how Christmas is coming up?”

Grace nodded eagerly. “Hannah and I have been counting down!” She looked down at her coloring page, before pushing it aside. “Do you need my help? This sounds important.”

“Oh, important?” Ned asked, pushing the chair away from his desk. He walked over to where Grace was sitting at her play desk and leaned down to her level. “Are you sure you just aren’t excited now that we’re talking about Christmas?”

Grace shrugged her shoulders. “We may never know.”

Ned shook his head, laughing. “You are so your mother’s daughter.”

“Duh,” Grace said confused. “Are you okay?” She placed the palm of her hand on his forehead, like her mom did when she wasn’t feeling well.

Laughing, Ned picked his daughter up and sat back down in his chair with her on his lap. “I’m okay, sweetie,” he said. “I’d be more okay if I knew what to get your mom for Christmas, but that’s another matter.”

Grace’s eyebrows wrinkled. “Isn’t Santa going to bring Mommy a gift? She’s been a really good girl.” She began to count on her fingers. “She still reads to me every night even though Cole doesn’t like to share her, she never forgets to pack me a surprise snack in my lunch…” Grace trailed off.

“Of course Mommy’s been a good girl. But don’t you get presents from more than just Santa?” Ned asked.

Grace nodded enthusiastically. “You and Mommy, Grandpa and Hannah, Grammy and Grandpa, Aunt Bess and Aunt George…” she trailed off again.

“Exactly. And we usually get Mommy a present too, right?” Ned asked her.

“You buy her something pretty and I make her something!”

“You won’t be the only one this year,” Ned said sighing.

With Cole only two months old and refusing to sleep on any sort of a schedule, a tired Nancy had suggested they make presents for each other this year, instead of going out shopping. Ned had agreed, not really caring about what Nancy would give him for Christmas since Grace and Cole were all the gifts he needed.

Born eight weeks premature, Grace had scared her parents. She was still on the smaller side of kids her age, but Ned remembered with pain the weeks spent in the hospital praying she would gain weight, gain an appetite. The one thing he’d never had to pray for her to gain, though, was a strong will. She was born a fighter, just like Nancy.

The scare had them wait until Grace was four to start trying for another baby. While pregnant with Cole, Nancy’s doctors diagnosed her with preeclampsia at the beginning of her third trimester. Ordered to bed rest for the last three months of pregnancy, Nancy had plenty of time to worry that their son would come as early as Grace- or worse, even earlier. Edith and Hannah were a constant fixture beside Nancy during those months, helping with Grace and keeping her company. To everyone’s relief, the pregnancy went to full term and Cole was a healthy baby with a very healthy set of lungs.

Ned remembered the many nights he had to hold Nancy after Grace’s birth and during her pregnancy for Cole. She had feared the difficult pregnancies were signs she wasn’t meant to be a mother. Ned’s heart broke whenever she expressed the sentiment. From the second she learned she was pregnant with Grace, Nancy had taken a step back from dangerous cases and put her heart into motherhood.

“What do you mean, Daddy?” Grace asked, breaking Ned away from his thoughts.

“Mommy and I made a pact this year.”

“A pact?” Grace questioned.

“A promise,” Ned explained. “We’re going to make each other presents this year.”

Grace scrunched her nose. “No pretty jewelry?”

“There better not be,” Nancy said knowingly from the doorway of Ned’s office.

Ned and Grace looked up at her guiltily.

Nancy shifted, finding a more comfortable position to hold Cole. “I was just about to put Cole down for his nap.”

“And you couldn’t help but overhear?” Ned teased his wife.

Shrugging, Nancy smiled. “I can’t help it if I was born with superior hearing.” She turned to leave and said, “No cheating and asking Grace for help. It’s not like Cole is going to be much help to me.”

Ned looked helplessly down at his daughter.

With a shrug identical to her mother, Grace said, “You heard Mommy. But maybe you can help me with my gift to her!”

///

“Cookies, Gracie?”

Grace looked up, smiling. “But I haven’t even had dinner!”

Edith laughed. “It’ll be our little secret.” She looked down at the blank paper in front of Grace. “What are you working on?”

“I have a mystery to solve!” Grace said excitedly. “Just like Mommy.”

“Oh?” Edith asked. “Want to tell me about it?” She sat down next to her granddaughter, placing the plate down beside the paper.

“Mommy and Daddy are making each other Christmas presents this year,” she said matter-of-factly, nibbling on a cookie. “Chocolate chip! My favorite!”

“I’ll pack you some to share with your parents after dinner,” Edith responded. “What’s your mystery?”

Grace frowned. “Well, Daddy doesn’t know what to make Mommy. That’s for me to solve. ‘Cept Mommy said I’m not ‘supposed to help him. But maybe if I solve the perfect gift for Daddy, I’ll be able to help them both and it’ll be okay!”

Laughing, Edith picked up a napkin to wipe chocolate off Grace’s face. “I find it hard to believe your dad doesn’t know your mom well enough by now to come up with something.”

Grace giggled. “He said he’s known Mommy forever that he’s given her everything but the moon. He’s silly.”

“I remember the first Christmas your parents spent together,” Edith said, smiling. “Your dad took extra jobs around the neighborhood so he’d have enough money to buy your mom a pretty necklace.”

Grace nodded. “One time Mommy showed me all of the pretty stuff Daddy gave her.” Her head tilted the side in thought. “Boys are icky, but Mommy said one day I won’t think that and I’ll have a boy I like.”

Edith laughed. “Your dad isn’t going to like that.”

“I’m not going to like what?” Ned asked, entering the kitchen.

“Grace dating,” Edith said, smirking.

“Not until she’s fifty,” Ned said instantly.

“Now imagine we’re you’d be if Carson had said that,” Edith said, still laughing.

Ned shrugged. “If Grace can find a boy with as pure intentions as I had then she can date.”

Edith laughed. “Oh yes, I forgot what an angel you were,” she teased her son.

“Boys are gross,” Grace assured Ned. “’Cept you and Cole!” she quickly added.

“Good girl,” he picked her up in his arms. “And guess what? I know what to make Mommy!”

“But that was my mystery to solve!” Grace pouted.

Chuckling, Ned shook his head. “Don’t worry. If you’re anything like your mother another one will be right around the corner.”

///

“Okay, Cole. All of that male bonding has to have paid off,” Nancy said to her son. “What should I make Daddy?”

Brown eyes just like Ned’s looked back up at her.

“Oh, now you choose to be silent? What happened to that lovely voice you like to show off?” she asked as she continued rocking him. “Your sister’s not a fan of that, you know. She thinks you’re screaming because you don’t like her.”

Grace was as attentive a sister as a five-year-old could be. She had no problem giving up her bedroom next to her parents’ so it could be turned back into a nursery. It took her a little bit longer to run down the hall to their room when she had a nightmare, but she had only complained once the first night. After Cole had been born, she was glad she was further away from his room and his crying.

“I’ve known Daddy for years,” Nancy sighed. “Of all the mysteries to solve, this should be easiest.”

Grace burst into the room. “Mommy!” She stopped when she looked at Cole. “Sorry. I didn’t know he was sleeping.”

“He’s not. You can come here,” Nancy responded.

“But he’s quiet,” Grace said.

“Imagine that,” Nancy said chuckling. “We were just trying to figure out what to make Daddy.”

Grace moved to stand beside her mother. “But that’s cheating. I couldn’t help Daddy.”

“Cole isn’t helping. He’s just listening,” Nancy explained. “So what did you do with your grandparents today?”

“We colored and played and talked and had lots and lots of fun,” Grace said without pausing.

“And had chocolate chip cookies?” Nancy guessed.

“How did you know?” Grace asked amazed.

“It’s my job to know these things,” Nancy said, licking her thumb and wiping a smudge of chocolate from the corner of Grace’s lip.

“’Cause you’re a detective?” Grace asked.

“No, because I’m your mom, silly,” Nancy said, smiling. “You still have room for dinner, right?”

Grace nodded, bouncing on her heels. “Daddy said he’s making spaghetti! I love spaghetti!”

“I know,” Nancy said. “Are you going to help him or stay here with me?”

Grace considered the two options. “Cole is being good. Maybe I can sit with you two?”

Nancy smiled, shifting Cole so Grace could climb on to her lap as well. “Comfortable?”

Grace nodded. “Mommy, did you ever write in a diary? Grammy was cleaning the attic and found one of her old ones. She said it had a lot of mushy stuff about Grandpa in it.”

Nancy laughed. “I did. I probably wrote a lot of mushy stuff about Daddy too. Not as much mushy stuff as Aunt Bess’ diaries probably had, though.”

“Will you read it to me at bed time one night?” Grace asked.

Nancy smiled at her question. “Sure, I’ll have to go to Grandpa’s to get an old one, though.”

“Good. I want to know why you stopped thinking boys were gross,” Grace said.

“Because I met your dad,” Nancy said smiling.

///

Nancy curled up on the couch, closing her eyes. “Checklist?”

“One clueless baby asleep, one excited girl asleep,” Ned began. “All of the gifts are out, Santa ate his cookies and drank his milk.” He sat down beside her. “I think we’re done.”

His wife peeked open an eye. “This early? Are you sure?”

Ned laughed, nodding. “There is one more thing.” He reached behind the couch and pulled out a thin rectangular present wrapped in bright gold paper.

“Clever hiding spot, Nickerson,” Nancy teased him as she bent down and pulled a small box out from underneath the couch.

“Great minds think alike.” He exchanged his present for hers and leaned in to kiss her. “Merry Christmas, Nan.”

“Merry Christmas, Ned,” she responded. “Go on, open your present. I may have cheated a little bit,” she admitted.

“Oh?” Ned quickly shed the box of its red wrapping paper and opened it. Laughing, he pulled out the day planner.

“What’s so funny?” Nancy asked.

“Nothing,” Ned answered, sobering. “So you cheated a little?”

Nancy nodded. “Obviously I bought it, but the real present is on the inside, so open it already!”

Ned mockingly saluted his wife. “Yes, ma’am!” Scanning the pages slowly, Ned smiled. “Is this…” he trailed off.

Nancy blushed. “I got into the habit of journaling early on because of my mysteries, but after I met you…you ended up taking up a lot of pages. I went to Dad’s the other week to dig out some of my old journals. Between those and the ones I’ve written in since moving out of his house, I came up with something to copy for every day of the year. The biggest challenge was finding a planner with enough space for what I wanted to do.”

“Oh, Nan,” Ned said tenderly. “This is the best present. I always love having a little insight into that mind of yours.” Opening to a random page and began to read, “I’m in love and I don’t even know how it happened. I’ve liked Ned for as long as I’ve known him, but all of a sudden today I thought about how much I love him. Love him! I, Nancy Drew, am in love with Ned Nickerson, and as terrifying as that is, somehow it’s not all that scary when I think about how safe and loved he makes me feel.”

“That feels like forever ago,” Nancy remarked quietly.

Ned agreed. “Fifteen years, but it feels like so much more.” He nodded towards the gift on her lap. “Your turn.”

Smiling, she unwrapped the present to reveal the smiling faces of her family. “A calendar!” she laughed. “Great minds really do think alike.” Flipping through the months, she stopped on Grace’s birth month and gasped.

“I was going to do a more recent picture,” Ned explained, “but I kept thinking about happy you were that day.”

Nancy traced her finger along the photo of her holding Grace in the hospital for the first time. “I waited so long for her to get out of that incubator,” she said softly.

“I practically had to pry her out of your hands for my turn,” Ned teased her.

“I wanted to cherish the last few minutes before she became a daddy’s girl,” Nancy teased back. Flipping to October, she smiled at the picture of Grace holding Cole for the first time with Ned's help. “She’s such a good big sister.”

Ned nodded, taking the calendar from Nancy’s hands to flip to June, the month of their wedding anniversary.

“What’s this?” she asked, unclipping the small rectangular papers fastened with a paper clip. “Coupons?” she questioned, raising an eyebrow. She smirked when she read the top one. “A foot massage? Afraid the calendar wasn’t going to go over well?”

“Nah, I just know that you’re the secret romantic in the relationship. I didn’t want you upstaging me. Which you did, by the way,” Ned said.

Nancy shrugged. “Step up your game, Nickerson.” She handed him one of the coupons. “I’d like to use this one now, please.”

Looking at the coupon, Ned began to laugh. “I was hoping you would.” He stood up and gathered her into his arms. “Merry Christmas, baby.”

“The best one yet, I think,” Nancy said, pulling him towards the stairs.


End file.
